Matriarch Qiwi - BF assassin
Once upon a time I got lucky and found an ethereal Fleshripper - a great weapon for Blade Fury. I always intended to give it a test run, but that project has been on the back-burner for quite a while. Then someone recently pointed out this thread by Ceramic Weasel, and after reading through it (and seeing how well the Fleshripper stacked up to some very high-end weapons), it inspired me to finally get around to tackling a BF assassin.
The usual...
Matriarch Qiwi
LCS <-- no idea how accurate that is - probably not very.
Skills (with equipment):
29 Blade Fury
22 Venom
29 Death Sentry
29 Lightning Sentry
2+ Fire Blast (remaining points will go here, for more DS shots)
1 Mindblast, prerequisites
Gear:
ethereal Fleshripper (Ruby Jewel of Ire, 37/+5 max = 273 ED total)
Fortitude
Stormshield (-requirements, fire resist jewel)
Guillaume's Face (15 @resist jewel)
Goreriders
Highlord's Wrath
Nosferatu's Coil
Ravenfrost (19/244)
DreadLoop rare ring: (7L/4M leech, 11@ resists, 119 AR, +1 max. damage)
Crafted 'Blood' Gloves: (24f / 24l / 18p resists, 1L/3M leech, 10% Crushing Blow, +12 life)
Switch: CtA + Lidless Wall
7x Entrapping (+37 life, 50 poison damage, 28% Greed, 4xplain)
9x Steel/Fine small charm of Balance/Inertia (+218 AR, +11 max damage, 20 FHR, 17FRW 1 from 1.09)
Misc. Breakpoints & stuff:
6-frame Blade Fury
48+ FHR (5 frames)
-50% Target Defense
93% Deadly Strike
85% Crushing Blow
60% Open Wounds
30% Slows Target (plus Decrepify from the merc often)
41% Damage Reduction (Fade + Stormshield)
75% Blocking
15L / 7M Leech
Neeraj, Blessed Aim merc, level81
ethereal Reapers Toll (Ruby Jewel of Fervor)
Treachery mage plate
Vampire Gaze (IAS jewel)
Finds:
Fal/Pul Hellforge
+5 @resists small charm
+8 @resists large charm
that's about it (other than a few Failed Grail additions)
Notes:
1. No, I didn't use the enigma. I thought about it, but decided to go with a more generic approach, and the Fortitude just compliments the build a lot better than the Enigma (through the extra resists & damage).
2. I initially planned to go with Blades of Ice as my anti-Physical Immunes backup (I figured it would be adequate-but-crappy; I wanted to see by what margin). But there was one problem with that plan: melee attack + ethereal (non-repairing) weapon. So I ended up settling on a 'cookie-cutter' BF assassin instead.
3. That said, DS was a very nice helper for physical immunes.
4. Neeraj was painfully, painfully stupid. I don't know if it was because he was a BA merc (I can't remember how long it's been since I used one of these auras) and they have different AI than the other Act2 mercs, or if he just plain sucked. I've used plenty of Act2 mercs before, and I can only ever remember one other Act2 merc that was as nearly as stupid as him. He was so bad at times that I wish I'd been able to hostile him to relieve my frustrations (if only temporarily).
5. For a change of pace, I didn't feel like taking her through with the usual twinking gear, so at level18 I immediately jumped 100% into Blade Fury with Clegaw's set. At level38 I upgraded to an ethereal Fleshrender, then Heaven's Light at 61.
6. /players8 for Normal & Nightmare, /players1-5 for Hell (depending on kill-speed & leech & immunities).
7. This actually completes my 2nd Septavirate of Mats/Pats. Not bad considering I never really set out to complete the first one.
8. There were some things that I really liked about the ranged aspect of Blade Fury compared to the other ranged attack skills that I've tried. The most obvious was the fact that you don't ever run out of ammo - it's very nice never needing to go to town to repair a weapon or pick up arrows/bolts. The 2nd thing I liked was the continuous attack - it was nice to not bother to namelock individual monsters when a swarm came up, instead just point towards an empty space to start, hold the mouse button down, and then aim at the monsters that seemed the most dangerous without lifting off the attack button.
Overall:
I played as almost a pure BF assassin until the Durance of Hate in Hell, and it was getting a little monotonous at times near the end. The attack (and leech) was so powerful that I barely ever used Cloak of Shadows or Mindblast, and DS was only for helping take out physical immunes. So 98% of the gameplay was pretty much holding down the right mouse button until everything died, collecting the drops, and refreshing my prebuff from time to time.
But once I got into the Durance I decided to start mixing in Death Sentry a lot more, and with Stygian Dolls and a few other dangerous monsters starting to pop up more, I added a little more CoS and Mindblast too - and once I diversified my skill usage a little, all of the sudden I found the build quite enjoyable to play. And with DS mowing things down more often, the pace seemed to roll along even faster too.
So I'm glad I finally tried it - especially because it turned out even more enjoyable than I'd hoped (at least for the last couple of acts). And enjoying the combo of Blade Fury and Death Sentry as much as I did, it's already got me thinking about a much more original idea (you'll have to wait to find out those details).
Once upon a time I got lucky and found an ethereal Fleshripper - a great weapon for Blade Fury. I always intended to give it a test run, but that project has been on the back-burner for quite a while. Then someone recently pointed out this thread by Ceramic Weasel, and after reading through it (and seeing how well the Fleshripper stacked up to some very high-end weapons), it inspired me to finally get around to tackling a BF assassin.
The usual...
Matriarch Qiwi
LCS <-- no idea how accurate that is - probably not very.
Skills (with equipment):
29 Blade Fury
22 Venom
29 Death Sentry
29 Lightning Sentry
2+ Fire Blast (remaining points will go here, for more DS shots)
1 Mindblast, prerequisites
Gear:
ethereal Fleshripper (Ruby Jewel of Ire, 37/+5 max = 273 ED total)
Fortitude
Stormshield (-requirements, fire resist jewel)
Guillaume's Face (15 @resist jewel)
Goreriders
Highlord's Wrath
Nosferatu's Coil
Ravenfrost (19/244)
DreadLoop rare ring: (7L/4M leech, 11@ resists, 119 AR, +1 max. damage)
Crafted 'Blood' Gloves: (24f / 24l / 18p resists, 1L/3M leech, 10% Crushing Blow, +12 life)
Switch: CtA + Lidless Wall
7x Entrapping (+37 life, 50 poison damage, 28% Greed, 4xplain)
9x Steel/Fine small charm of Balance/Inertia (+218 AR, +11 max damage, 20 FHR, 17FRW 1 from 1.09)
Misc. Breakpoints & stuff:
6-frame Blade Fury
48+ FHR (5 frames)
-50% Target Defense
93% Deadly Strike
85% Crushing Blow
60% Open Wounds
30% Slows Target (plus Decrepify from the merc often)
41% Damage Reduction (Fade + Stormshield)
75% Blocking
15L / 7M Leech
Neeraj, Blessed Aim merc, level81
ethereal Reapers Toll (Ruby Jewel of Fervor)
Treachery mage plate
Vampire Gaze (IAS jewel)
Finds:
Fal/Pul Hellforge
+5 @resists small charm
+8 @resists large charm
that's about it (other than a few Failed Grail additions)
Notes:
1. No, I didn't use the enigma. I thought about it, but decided to go with a more generic approach, and the Fortitude just compliments the build a lot better than the Enigma (through the extra resists & damage).
2. I initially planned to go with Blades of Ice as my anti-Physical Immunes backup (I figured it would be adequate-but-crappy; I wanted to see by what margin). But there was one problem with that plan: melee attack + ethereal (non-repairing) weapon. So I ended up settling on a 'cookie-cutter' BF assassin instead.
3. That said, DS was a very nice helper for physical immunes.
4. Neeraj was painfully, painfully stupid. I don't know if it was because he was a BA merc (I can't remember how long it's been since I used one of these auras) and they have different AI than the other Act2 mercs, or if he just plain sucked. I've used plenty of Act2 mercs before, and I can only ever remember one other Act2 merc that was as nearly as stupid as him. He was so bad at times that I wish I'd been able to hostile him to relieve my frustrations (if only temporarily).
5. For a change of pace, I didn't feel like taking her through with the usual twinking gear, so at level18 I immediately jumped 100% into Blade Fury with Clegaw's set. At level38 I upgraded to an ethereal Fleshrender, then Heaven's Light at 61.
6. /players8 for Normal & Nightmare, /players1-5 for Hell (depending on kill-speed & leech & immunities).
7. This actually completes my 2nd Septavirate of Mats/Pats. Not bad considering I never really set out to complete the first one.
8. There were some things that I really liked about the ranged aspect of Blade Fury compared to the other ranged attack skills that I've tried. The most obvious was the fact that you don't ever run out of ammo - it's very nice never needing to go to town to repair a weapon or pick up arrows/bolts. The 2nd thing I liked was the continuous attack - it was nice to not bother to namelock individual monsters when a swarm came up, instead just point towards an empty space to start, hold the mouse button down, and then aim at the monsters that seemed the most dangerous without lifting off the attack button.
Overall:
I played as almost a pure BF assassin until the Durance of Hate in Hell, and it was getting a little monotonous at times near the end. The attack (and leech) was so powerful that I barely ever used Cloak of Shadows or Mindblast, and DS was only for helping take out physical immunes. So 98% of the gameplay was pretty much holding down the right mouse button until everything died, collecting the drops, and refreshing my prebuff from time to time.
But once I got into the Durance I decided to start mixing in Death Sentry a lot more, and with Stygian Dolls and a few other dangerous monsters starting to pop up more, I added a little more CoS and Mindblast too - and once I diversified my skill usage a little, all of the sudden I found the build quite enjoyable to play. And with DS mowing things down more often, the pace seemed to roll along even faster too.
So I'm glad I finally tried it - especially because it turned out even more enjoyable than I'd hoped (at least for the last couple of acts). And enjoying the combo of Blade Fury and Death Sentry as much as I did, it's already got me thinking about a much more original idea (you'll have to wait to find out those details).
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